Manohar Parrikar: State Election Commission will be asked to do delimitation for future panchayat polls

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said the process of delimitation or reserving wards for future panchayat elections would be handed over to the State Election Commission.

The state government had delimited and reserved the wards for the upcoming panchayat elections scheduled on 11 June due to which they (government) received widespread criticism.

"We want the State Election Commission (SEC) to do the delimitation and reservation of the wards. We want them to do it because there is a perception that the exercise is being done with certain motives," Parrikar told reporters.

The chief minister said he has issued directions that immediately after the upcoming panchayat election, let the SEC take over the job so that no one has question mark on the fairness or transparency of the job.

Parrikar said the process of delimitation and reservation would be done much in advance so that if any aspiring candidate finds that his ward is reserved, then he can contest from other ward.

"Usually the decision of reservation at the last minute causes heartburn. Ideally, they should know one year or six months in advance about the wards which are reserved," he said.